A380 Lacks B747 Glamour?

     It is just one person’s opinion and probably inevitable, after that recent U.S. press gag by A380, but an article written by Christine Negroni with the headline “Airbus A380 Is a Huge Jet But Lacks B747 Glamour” caught our eye during an otherwise slow news week post Easter 2007.
     The story appeared in The Seattle Post Intelligencer, a fine daily newspaper that serves (the last time we checked) a city where thousands of people reside who also build airplanes nearby for a company named Boeing.
     The tone for the story was set at the top with a quote from none other than the immortal Charles A. Lindbergh, who supposedly said in 1969 as B747 deliveries got underway:
     "This is one of the great ones.
     "I mean the 747, this is an airplane that will go down in history."
     The Lindbergh quote is followed by the writer declaring:
     “Thirty-eight years later, as hundreds of journalists watched the brand new Airbus A380 descend onto runways in the United States for the first time, they were encouraged to compare it with the 747.
     “My advice to Airbus:
     “Don't go there.”
     Duh-what?
     Lucky Lindy, who in retrospect was certainly right about first super jumbo, at the time was also a paid consultant for Pan Am just as that airline bet the company on the B747.
     What also should be mentioned is that many smart airline minds have traced the slow decline of the world’s greatest airline from 1930 until 1980, to its purchase of B747 ahead of the rest of the world (and passenger demand), as a contributing factor to the airline finally going under in 1991.
     But the main thrust here is the writer’s opinion that the profile of B747 is somehow nicer than that of A380.
     All things considered including the beauty of A380, this story out of the Boeing home town newspaper seems a bit thin, and could even be perceived by some as sour grapes.
     One thing that has certainly not changed in those thirty-eight years between B747 debut and A380, is that the world airlines will make or break the success of any airplane Boeing or Airbus builds.
     This kind of local cheerleading might land woefully flat with a dull thud in the global village.
     In any case, don’t look now but the first A380 built to be a passenger carrier not a test bed, is inside a gigantic paint shop in Hamburg, Germany, and will join schedules at Singapore Airlines later this year.     

 

     We recall when B747 took off, it’s looks were compared to the sleeker B707s, DC8s and SUD Caravelles.
     Some at Pan Am dubbed the airplane that would change air travel: "Fat Albert".
     Maybe what goes around comes around again and as the skies are filled with A380s and affection for the big bird grows, as it surely will, A380 might end up nicknamed "Dumbo" for its bulbous front nose.
     Beauty, it can be said is certainly in the eye of the beholder, and we suspect in some cases, apparently also in its location.
Geoffrey